McRAE-HELENA — A Middle Georgia man pleaded guilty Monday to robbing and killing a retired Marietta couple after luring them to the rural countryside here nearly a decade ago on the promise of selling them a vintage Ford Mustang.
Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns, who turned 38 last week, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors originally sought the death penalty in the case, which was set for trial early next year.
The slayings of Cobb County retirees Elrey “Bud” Runion, 69, and June Runion, 66, in January 2015 became national news after they were fooled into traveling to Telfair County, about 75 miles southeast of Macon, to meet a man claiming to have a 1966 Ford Mustang for sale.
Bud Runion had posted an ad on the online marketplace Craigslist seeking such an automobile. Prosecutors have said Towns, who had been out of work and was desperate for cash, saw the posting and contacted Runion using “burner” cellphones, coaxing him to drive south to see the Mustang. The car did not exist.
June Runion traveled with her husband to a spot not far from the Ocmulgee River hamlet of Jacksonville, Georgia, in mid-January 2015.
The pair’s bodies, both shot in the head, were found in the woods nearby on Jan. 22 that year. The area where their bodies were discovered was close to a farm where Towns was raised.
Towns was arrested soon after and had been jailed for nearly 10 years awaiting trial.
The case had been hamstrung by delays that included the COVID-19 pandemic and the dismissal of Towns’ original indictment by the Supreme Court of Georgia on grounds that the grand jury was improperly composed.
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